The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-05-21
HE SHOULD COME WEST.
Milwaukee Sentinel.


It is to be hoped that nothing
will interfere with Mr.. Cleveland's
projected tour through the South
and the Northwest the coming
summer. During the next two
years he will continue to be tho
head of the government, and it 10
important that he should know
something of the country. Mr..
Cleveland has never been further
west than Buffalo nor further south
than Richmond. All his ideas Of
the nation have been gathered from
his experience in a region embrac-
ing less than q fortieth of the terri
tory of the United States. Proba-
bly, no other man whose name is
known outside his own village has
seen less of this country than MIR.
Cleveland. More than that, he
knows less Of the history Of the
country than any other man whose
name is familiar to the public.
Until his election as Governor Of
New York he was an easy-going
villager, without ambition, without
learning, without any interest in
the great questions that have dis
turbed the nation. 1t has been inn
possible to discover any evidence
that he was even aware of the great
civil war during its progress. AL
though he had passed the age Of
legal maturity when the war broke
out, the history of his town retains
no record of his attitude. He
knows nothing of the people of the
great West; his ideas of Western
people have been formed from his
intercourse with the seekers of Of
flee who have invaded Washington
during his term. He knows MOTH
ing of the industrial and social con-
ditions Of North or South. Inevit-
ably his mind is narrow. He does
not seek in books the information
which his limited experience has
not enabled him to obtain at first
hand.
A visit to tho Northwest, not
merely to lure the finny beauties
from the cool deeps of the trout
streams, not merely to evade the
penetrating gaze of the jealous re-
porters, but to meet with the peo-
pie, to study their ways of think
ing and living, to make up by actu-
al observation for his neglect of
newspaper reports, would do Mr..
Cleveland power of good. A man
who has travelled only from Buffalo
to Albany and from Albany to
Washington, and who obstinately
refuses to read the papers, can have
no just idea of the needs Of IT, .
great country. The myopic Eng
lishman is hardly less competent
to pass upon measures affecting
q republic Of the extent and variety
of the United States, than . man
who has merely travelled on palace
car through a small section Of the
East. The real United States lies
far to the westward Of Mr.. Clevs-
lands short line Of travel. He has
had to do, for the most part Of his
life, with those people who have
lacked the energy and ambition to
come into the West-witb the slug
gish elements left behind in the
great westward movement of the
race. An inhalation of Western
atmosphere would clear up his
head, and he would 60 back to the
capital with enlarged ideas of tho
greatest republic in the history Of
the world, and an enlarged sense OF
his responsibility. He would fird
no mere mugwumps here, but peo-
pie Of only flesh and blood, full Of
partisan fire, too deeply concerned
in grand party questions to waste
their time in setting up small par
ties on fanciful issues.